High school track and field: Eastwood Trooper wins on bad ankle

Eastwood track star Victoria Ubanyionwu almost didn't run in one her favorite events, the 100-meter hurdles, during the area high school track and field meet Saturday.

She suffered a sprained ankle Friday while preparing for another one of her events, the long jump.

But, it didn't matter.

The Trooper standout fought through the pain to finish second in the long jump (17 feet, 4 inches) and won the triple jump (35-10).

And, that wasn't it. Later Saturday afternoon, with her ankle swollen and in pain, Ubanyionwu got a victory the 100 hurdles in 15.54 seconds.

"I'm glad I did it because I got first," Ubanyionwu said. "It wasn't my best time, but I'm very proud that I'm getting through this meet with all the injuries I have."

This year was the first for the Class 4A and 5A area meets, which were held at Del Valle High School on Friday and Saturday. Class 5A featured athletes from Districts 1-5A and 2-5A, while competitors from Districts 1-4A and 2-4A made up the Class 4A portion of the meet.

The top-four finishers in each event advance to next weekend's regional meet. Class 5A's regional contest will be at Fuller Track in Lubbock and Class 4A's at McMurray University in Abilene.

El Dorado's Adeola Akomolafe picked up area titles in the long jump (19-04) and the 200 (24.50), while Aztec teammate Olamide Olowe won the gold in the 400 at 56.45.

"This meet was great for our team going into regionals," Akomolafe said.

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Amarillo Tascosa won the girls Class 5A girls area title with 91 points, followed by Franklin (87) and El Dorado (84.50).

In Class 5A boys, Franklin's Brian Barraza won gold medals in both the 1,600 (4:21.88) and 3,200 (9:20.54).

Tascosa also won the Class 5A boys area title with 103 points. Lubbock Coronado was second with 95 points. El Dorado was the top area team in third with 85 points.

In Class 4A, Burges won the boys area title with 154 points, beating second-place Horizon by 50.